A Poor Choice of Enemies

When Alice finds her brother, Guy, guarding a corpse on family land in the early summer of 1947, she suspects the worst. Her father, who was the last person to have seen the deceased alive, refuses to talk about it to the police. As the investigation proceeds an evil network is revealed and persons of high status implicated. Alice and her lover Jeremy seek to clear her father’s name by finding the killer – a task that becomes more difficult with every step they take.

Pictures of Angels

In the spring of 1947 Alice Chamberlain, 27-year-old daughter of Roger Chamberlain, (Lord Weathersley), returns from France, to London. Her old boss, Colonel Legge (aka 'Leggy') now semiretired, asks her to research a mysterious painting of an angel that he has recently acquired. She agrees, and after some basic detective work she discovers that it is one of a group of seven paintings that are also coveted by a group of black occultists. Whoever captures the seven angels will have access to enormous power. To reunite the Angels, Alice has to use all her ingenuity and courage, entering the worlds of high society and occultism, and facing every new situation with common sense and bravery.

About the Author

Lucy Dunmore has been writing novels since she was 11 years old. She studied the History of Art at London University and has worked as a teacher, administrator and led art and music tours in Europe. Previously unpublished works include The Province of the Goddess which came fourth in a Victor Gollanz fantasy novel competition, and A Sense of Betrayal which was also warmly praised. A Poor Choice of Enemies, the sequel to Pictures of Angels, is presently being written in Spain.

The Singing Stones

About the author:Dolores Aschroft-Nowicki is a third generation psychic who has worked with magic since childhood. She studied under the late W. E. Butler and with him was a founding member of the Servants of the Light School of Occult Science.

She travels the world lecturing on all aspects of the occult and is the author of many successful books, including The Shining Paths, Inner Landscapes, Illuminations, The Ritual Magic Workbook and First Steps in Ritual.

Review by Gareth Knight:

How the everyday cloaks the marvellous! Young Thomas, approaching his 14th birthday comes into an unexpected inheritance that brings wonders galore - rings of singing stones, guardians who shape shift into animals and birds, knights and ladies from the court of King Arthur, and lots of derring do. A box of delights from a gifted psychic and writer who knows about these things from the inside.

Dancing On Air

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About the author:

Verity Sweeny Purdy is the author of two previous memoirs, The Luckiest Girl in the World (Heritage House 1998) and As Luck Would Have It: Adventures with the Canadian Army Show 1943-1946 (Vanwell, 2003).

Sex and Light

About the author:

Alan Richardson is the author of more than fifteen books, including magical biographies of Dion Fortune, Christine Hartley and William G. Gray. He is also an expert on earth mysteries, mythology, Paganism, Celtic lore, and ancient Egypt. Alan does not belong to any occult group or society, does not take pupils, and does not give lectures or any kind of initiation. He insists on holding down a full-time job in the real world like any other mortal. That, after all, is part and parcel of the real magical path.

Highways of the Mind

Pathworking is a term given to a specific kind of guided visualization exercise in which the mind is projected into a series of situations and landscapes that can be viewed on a mental screen.Tracing them from the earliest cave paintings, through the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Bardic tradition and the story-tellers of Ireland, Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki shows pathworkings to be a part of a much greater structure in the make-up of man, pertaining to his hopes and dreams and his ability to make those dreams come true. Used with purpose and by trained minds, the pathworking becomes a series of controlled thought patterns - and thought is the basis of creation.

The New Book of the Dead

The Tibetan Book of the Dead and the Egyptian Book of the Dead have fascinated and inspired generations of Westerners looking for sense and significance in the mysteries of life and death. These ancient scriptures laid out elaborate rituals and explanations of death, often exotic, but sometimes alien to our own experience.

The New Book of the Dead is a modern version of this ancient wisdom, written specifically for Westerners. It is a detailed guide for dealing with death and bereavement in all its forms: natural and violent, children and old people. It describes rites of preparation - such as the ritual cutting of the silver cord and the blessing and license to depart, saying goodbye, and letting go of the physical realm. It gives instructions for the preparation of the body, funeral and death ceremonies in various traditions, and rites for the modern priests of Anubis.

This is not a book of sorrow and foreboding, but teaches us how to accept and even welcome death, as a great teacher, the last great mystery and culminating experience of life.

Halfmoon Rising

The authors; Pat Wenger, Florence Walker, Linda Szabados and Frank MacKenzie, residents of BC's Sunshine Coast, work in a wide range of poetry and prose, from fiction to creative nonfiction. Every piece included in Halfmoon Rising is the result of several years work and showcases the contributions of these four to the literary arts scene.

Dip into this anthology to discover diverse new talents and promising additions to BC's prolific body of authors!

Trapped in Tunisia, Troubled by Bears and Other Events

Trapped in Tunisia

When the editor of Canada's legion magazine suggested that I produce a memoir on the air war in the Mediterranean, I wrongly assumed that he was interested in fiction. The story I produced, Dressed for Battle was therefore based on my own experience but credited to the fictitious ferret Plumley. Dressed for Battle was well enough received to lead to a series of reminiscences which also covered my stay in Malta. But do not be surprised if you are suddenly transported to the Algerian Sahara desert where I spent a year imprisoned by barbed wire as the guest of the Vichy French. And please do not be nonplussed by references to "swordfish". The Swordfish was and still is in many museums, a pre-WWII open cockpit biplane known facetiously as the Stringbag, because of its strut and fabric construction. However, it has the distinction of sinking more enemy shipping than any other type of Allied aircraft. Freddie Nottingham and I usually flew together; he the pilot, I the observer. The pilot was usually referred to as the driver, while my job was to do the navigation, operate the radio and communicate in Morse code. Malta is a small island remote from everywhere. Getting home safely from a night operation was always my major concern, so navigation was the most important of my duties.

Another important duty did materialize on one occasion, and it led to the story of the Red Handle. The stories that follow are all based on similar adventures. After my release from captivity I was involved in the Pacific theatre, where the enemy liked to indulge in suicide attacks on our ships. Kamikaze is the story of one such attack.

Troubled by bears and other events

The closest perusal of a British Columbia map will never reveal the location of Jackass Creek. The village, the events recorded in the following stories and the characters involved are all fiction. I wrote the stories of my own Jackass Creek during a halcyon summer, shaded by a giant grapevine and suitably cooled by appropriate refreshment. I hope they will give the reader some insight into village life before Facebook and Twitter.